This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for transporting fully wound packages doffed on and discharged from a spinning frame such as a winder to a subsequent next process or to a warehouse or the like.
In a spinning frame of the type which includes a number of spinning units, packages are normally doffed at different points of time among several spindles of the spinning units. Accordingly, when doffed packages are transported by means of a conveyor or the like, probably they are spaced a different distance from each other on the conveyor, and hence they may be discharged from the conveyor after different intervals of time from each other. Particularly where packages discharged from a conveyor are transported one by one by a lifter or the like, this may cause an unnecessary "wait" at the lifter, or else an interval or spacing between successive packages may be so small that transportation of the packages will be made difficult, or some other undesirable situations may be caused. Thus, losses of time and troubles may be resulted from such situations.
In a spinning mill in which a number of spinning frames are incorporated, packages wound and doffed on the different spinning frames are often in different conditions from each other. For example, packages may be in different orientations to direct their reduced ends in opposite directions while they may have a similar conical configuration, or packages of a similar cheese configuration may have bunch windings at opposite positions. Such variations in orientation of packages will give rise to problems in operations in a subsequent next process, and especially will cause a difficulty in transportation of packages to a subsequent next process.